Will HVAC installers be trained on them, or will they continue to size them for AC load and as a result install systems that are unable to heat below 25F (-5C). The heat pump itself of course can provide heat down to -20F/-25C but it cannot provide enough heat for the climate and so you spend most of the year using the backup heating system (or your house is dangerously cold)
this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2024
85 points (100.0% liked)
Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.
5197 readers
716 users here now
Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.
As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades:
How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world:
Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:
Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
What I recommend doing is finding an installer who is certified by the manufacturer; they tend to be trained to do it right.
My installer was certified. It was installed right and works well - until the temperature gets to 25F and it just isn't large enough to keep up. This is a sales problem and a larger unit would be more expensive so they didn't offer it to me.
It sounds like a system design issue, i.e. they always intended there to be a "primary" heating system below 25F and it was sized as such. For every customer like you, there are 3 more that want to keep a fossil backup system in place so that's where the market is. Unfortunately that also means customers need to be very educated themselves to select the "right" opinion. There are also downsides to oversizing heat pumps too, and typically oversizing is very common since manual J is overly conservative and installers are used to oversizing fossil systems. Your best bet is more weatherization to decrease heating load so that your HP can meet that load. Yes capacity drops as temperatures decrease, but good ccASHP can maintain full output closer to 0F. Do you have like a 1 ton mini for a whole home in Maine?
I'd provide that feedback. They need to hear it.
This is great, living in MA I see a majority of houses relying on old oil heating systems. Just checking Zillow listings and seeing the big ugly black tank in the basement it's very common. Mini split systems with heat pumps have started popping up more, especially in these older houses where it's easier to install than trying to install duct work for a full sized HVAC system.